Tales of a Stitcher

Post navigation

The Great Alaskan Quilt Out – The Other Ones

It is the end of January, and this project should have disappeared into the rearview mirror a long time ago.

In some ways, it has. I finished these babies back in the first week of January. But the true closure AKA the blog post has yet to happen.

Today is the day.

Back in December, with the goal of clearing much needed storage space, I began the Great Alaskan Quilt Out.

The idea was to quilt 14 quilt tops from various stages and place in my life and send them out into the world.

I started with two vintage quilt tops for my friend, surrogate grandmother, and McCarthy neighbor Patt. You can read about that adventure here and here.

From there I finished six Mystery Quilts which you get a gander at here and here. By finished, I mean some of them only needed bindings, and some of them only needed to be taken out of storage and put in the pile.

And finally, I finished four random quilts, and that is what we are going to look at today.

The first one up is a quilt made from a pattern long forgotten.

It’s bright (maybe too bright) and a clear representation of me still learning the basics of color composition. Or to put it another way, what is the value of this quilt? It’s all about medium values and nothing else.

I’ve dug around for the pattern, but it is hiding. If you know it, please do share.

I started out quilting straight lines, but fairly quickly realized a curvy line would be a much better fit.

I think the unstitching of the straight quilting lines took longer than the actual quilting of the curvy lines.

It happens.

Those of us traditional quilt makers who have been around awhile will recognize this quilt.

It’s a One Block Wonder from the book by Maxine Rosenthal. If you like pattern based quilt making and haven’t made one of these, you should.

It is great fun to watch these quilts materialize.

Several years ago, I went to the Earth, Fire, and Fibre exhibition at the Anchorage Museum.

This is a major fine craft biennial featuring the work of top Alaskan artists. The museum brings a well know curator or artist up from the lower 48 to jury the show. This particular year, the juror was a glass artist who clearly did not know her quilt patterns as she juried a One Block Wonder into the show.

Yes, these quilts look like art, but they are pattern based. And yes, the application CLEARLY says pattern based work is not eligible for the show. Some one did not read the directions….

This next quilt was given to me by one of my long arm quilting clients many years ago.

She hated the quilt and wanted me to disappear it for her.

Instead, I have finally quilt it.

It was a good time as far as the quilting goes.

Her collection of polka dotted fabrics is kind of mind blowing even by my standards.

Finally, a good old star quilt.

In this quilt, I was exploring the potential of alternative grid structures.

It’s a very good border for a smaller quilt. Unfortunately, it gets lost on this quilt.

I started the quilting many years ago–about ten to be exact. I used YLI Jeans Stitch thread in a contrasting color for each star.

I quilted a circle and then stitched spikes out from there.

I was in the early stages of experimenting with solid backing fabrics and choose a light pink fabric.

I won’t do that again.

Soilds are good, pastels are not.

There is just no place hide when you use a pastel.

At the time I was so disappointed with myself and my work that I buried it deep into my pile of unfinished projects. Now, this quilt is just blip in my stitching history. It’s funny how time does that.

This brings my total for The Great Alaskan Quilt Out to twelve. Patt’s quilts are already on her bed, but here are the other ten.

I’ve got two left to quilt, but they will have to wait until next year’s Quilt Out.

It feels good to have closure on these quilts. Now, to find them homes…..

Love reading the comments, all constructive and admiring. Our spouses can be our best critics I have found if one can take them with love and not see them as barbs, no? ALL of the graphics depicted by the quilts on this blog are fabulous as is the dialogue. Keep up the good work, Maria, you have come a long way and the rest is bound to be even more productive.

Thank you Aunt Carole. It is good to look backwards once and awhile and see what you have done. I am always fascinated by the evolution of an artists work but feel very sheepish when I share mine. You are absolutely right about the husbands! They are worth it.